Re-lax-a-tion
Noun
1. The state of being free from tension and anxiety. Synonyms : calm, tranquil, peaceful, loosening up, unwinding
2. In Physics- the restoration of equilibrium following disturbance
I haven’t always considered relaxation an “art”. As a teenager I could lay around for hours on end reading or watching T.V. (We didn’t have Netflix then). But somewhere in the middle of job-marriage-children, I no longer believed I should have any down time. My self-worth became dangerously entangled with busyness. It’s a common trap in our hurried culture (at least for adults/parents, teenagers don’t seem affected) that we must be always accomplishing something. Even on vacation I always had a plan. When my children were young and we took a trip to Disneyworld, I had every moment planned so we could get the most out of our vacation (6 year olds don’t need a nap anyway do they?) Now I can’t say I regret any of it, we did have a lot of fun and saw a lot of stuff, but fun and relaxation aren’t the same thing. Even now I tend to think we need a goal for every day of vacation. It could be diving or sightseeing but unwinding somehow does not seem a worthy goal for any day. So with this in mind, we decided to spend several days “relaxing”. The question is “How do we even do that?” I’m not looking to be bored, I just need to remind myself how to get away from schedules and busyness for a few days. It’s amazing that it could be so hard, but it’s worth a try.
The first day without a plan I kept thinking, “ok, it’s __ o’clock and what have we done today?” I hate the idea of wasting time, but is relaxing wasting time? While a few years ago I would’ve said YES without hesitation, now I don’t really think so. I think the rest of my life will go more smoothly (i.e. my attitude will be better) if I learn to relax. So I decided I was not going to even look at the clock or think about what time it was (we do have the luxury of that here).
This is not to say we layed around and watched Netflix for 4 days. Even just to have something to eat here requires biking, which I really enjoy and definitely counts as relaxing to me. So during our 4 days of relaxation we
-spent time on the beach/pool deck/sofa reading
-biked through town numerous times
-visited the Belize Estuary
-had dinner with new friends on their spectacular rooftop deck
-shopped and cooked
-spent an afternoon “swimming” in the ocean (it was really just floating in the water) -sat on a dock to watch the sunset in the evening -edited some video
-watched a few movies
-visited with John and Susan
So our relaxation was a success! (It seems I still can’t stop judging the “success” of a day). But I do feel more “chill” and tomorrow we will dive again….
here’s a link to the video of the Belize Estuary https://youtu.be/AQLLcsOo3RI
